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Hush interview: Following up on Erica and bringing FMV back to games

The latest from developer Flavourworks promises to build on what they've started with Erica and push interactive FMV games into a new generation.

Ozzie Mejia

March 30, 2022 4:00 PM

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FMV games have become less common in the 21st century, but there are a handful of studios trying to keep the idea alive. Developer Flavourworks is among them, most recently putting out the first chapter of its latest effort, Hush. This is an interactive crime drama, one that promises to have players on the edge of their seats throughout each episode. To learn more, we spoke with Creative Director Jack Attridge.

"Hush is our follow-up to our first game, which was Erica, which was published by Sony for PlayStation and also came out on iOS and PC," Attridge told Shacknews. "That was kind of where we started to mature with the touch video technology and Hush was us really wanting to turn up the ante on all of the fronts in terms of what we cared about. So Hush is kind of like, I guess you'd say, a classic guilty pleasure noir experience. I think it's kind of similar to something you'd expect if you were watching Sin City. And I mention Sin City because it speaks to the structure of how we're building Hush, which is when we were working on Erica, our first interactive branching narrative game, people would play through this 90-100 minute experience five or six times to see all the different endings. [To get] the different paths, get the Platinum Trophy, but it would usually mean going back to the start each time and seeing a lot of gameplay was quite similar."

Attridge noted the restrictions of the FMV format to branching narratives, which is why Hush will focus on multiple stories over the course of the same night. This will allow the game's storytellers a greater sense of freedom to increase the range of branching paths. Hush hopes to be much more ambitious than Erica, connecting the game's stories in such a way that makes sense, while also giving players the freedom to experience them their own way through their specific choices.

To learn more about the Hush beta, you can jump over to the Erica Steam page. The beta is currently available only on iOS and Android. Look for more information on this game in the months ahead. In the meantime, if you want to check out more interviews like this, be sure to subscribe to Shacknews and GamerHubTV on YouTube.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?